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Thursday, November 4, 2010

(Staff) Recommendations Through the Year

For October, the staff was asked to select the scariest book they have ever read. I chose The Exorcist, a book that, when I read it in high school, gave me nightmares for months. I never saw the movie (either version) and never will. The book was plenty scary enough for me.

Stephen King featured predominately. The Shining. It. Cell.

Nancy Drew made an appearance (one of the books was scary to the bookseller when she was a child when Nancy Drew appeared as a ghost...of herself!). C.S. Lewis also made the staff rec list with The Screwtape Letters(...I didn't say it couldn't be Christian fundamentalist scary!) Several people wanted to recommend Mark Danielewski's The House of Leaves, which I have been told is super scary (and funny and romantic and adventurous...). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was also featured on the bay, as was Chelsea Cain's Heartsick. And what collection of scary books would be complete without Silence of the Lambs?

As we move into the holiday season, the theme I'm proposing is to recommend something that they'll be giving this year as a gift.

One person is choosing Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, another is choosing Shark vs Train, a very cute children's book about who would win if a shark went up against a train in various contests (the shark wins at high diving, natch). Another children's book recommended by someone who has a pug is Chick 'n' Pug. The illustrations are delightful as Chick meets Pug, a dog that can do no wrong, even if he is a little, well, slow moving.

One person asked if they could recommend a book they really liked receiving as a gift (absolutely!), so he'll be recommending National Lampoon's Tenth Anniversary Anthology.

I'll be recommending Lane Smith's It's a Book, in which a monkey and a mouse try to explain to a jackass what a book is. "How do you scroll down?", the jackass asks. "You don't. I turn the page. It's a book." The jackass surprises himself and becomes engrossed in reading an actual book. I love this book, and will be giving it to my own children who are in their 20's.

Someone is recommending Paul Harding's Tinkers, another is choosing a lovely leatherbound edition of the complete series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Someone else has chosen The Dictionary of Imaginary Places.